“Shore Iguanadon are the first encounters of many of those stranded on
this island, other than the hungry marine reptiles in the water. Around
the size of a large cow, these often lazy reptiles rarely move, chewing
on seaweed and coral they’ve aquired in the water. Their time spent
digesting makes them noisy and smelly, “burping” every so often in a
awful bellow.
The white scales of their head is due to sneezing
out salt from their deep dives for food, gradually forming a pale crown
and toughening their digging horn. The older the Shore Iguanadon, the
more impressive the crown. Males have very large spines compared to the opposite sex, likely for the purpose of attracting females.
Shore
Iguanadon have a close cousin that lives upon the plain land of this
island, Land Iguanadon. These are smaller in size but much more
colourful and agressive. It is speculated that these Iguanadon are descendants of Marine Iguanas who drifted upon this island millions of years ago.“
Ruptorsaur (Charybdisuchus)
“The cause of nearly all strandings on this island, the largest
Ruptorsaurs swim around the shore for prey of all sorts, attacking
nearly anything they spot in the water. Even their own offspring are in danger of their hunger, leading young members of the species to live much of their lives in the aquatic caverns below the island and wander through other bodies of water on the island.
Ruptorsaurs come as small as seals and as large as orca whales, some times larger. Very few earn the right to be at their physical peak. Ruptorsaurs are much more heavily adapted for an
aquatic living than any other crocodilian, verily capable of traveling
on land with only females sluggishly making the journey to lay eggs.
It is possible Ruptorsaurs evolved from Salt Water crocodiles that made a
home on the island millions of years ago. Oddly enough it has developed
a similar nasal structure as a Gharial crocodile, but unlike the
Gharial this structure is on both sexes rather one, so its likely to
help in breathing rather display.”
Forest Tyrant (Varanus Tyrannus)
“Moving further into the island, one finds the area to be dominated by
thick forest with ancient trees smothered in parasitic vines and fungi,
crawling with strange life. It is easy to be encapsulated by the wonders
of the little things, but eyes are always watching, hungry ones. The
dominant predator of the land, Tyrants are large upright descendants of
ancient komodo dragons that were once stranded upon this island.
Standing as tall as an elephant, these beast are surprisingly silent,
quietly watching potential prey as they stand as still as the trees,
patient for unwary animals. If prey escapes from the Tyrant, it’s
unlikely to give chase due to it’s cumbersome body. If it has bitten
it’s target, the Tyrant will stalk it’s victim for whatever time it
takes for the victim to succumb to the wound, tracking them by the stink of the bite. Tyrants
are rarely seen with others of their kind, being incredibly territorial
and eager to eat smaller members of their kind. They only ever collect
with other Tyrants during mating season, were males clash for the
female’s (Queens) interest. The largest or most tenacious males (Kings)
will father the next generation. Their young appear much like an average
monitor lizard, hiding from predators by living an arboreal lifestyle.
Mothers often have their young clutching to them for the first few
months, eating parasites off her skin.”
Brontosaurus (Procerus Serpens)
“The tallest herbivore of the thick island forest, the Brontosaur feeds
upon fruits, fungi, and any small and slow animals it’s long neck can
reach. They are normally found in groups of five or less, all members of
the family keeping their eyes out for bold predators. In case of attack
, adults will block predators from younger members of the group, and
open their mouths as wide as possible, reveling bright blue flesh
within. If bellowing and this startiling display does nothing, they will
whip the predator with serrated tails. Brontosaurs evolved from a
form of proto-snake that made it to this mysterious island millions of
years ago, and played the vacant role of the sauropods. Young Brontos
will eat adults fecal matter in their early days to gain gut bacteria
that can digest fruit and fungi, which may explain how a group related
to snakes could become herbivorous.”
Frilled Raptor (ChlamydoRaptor)
“If the island were to have wolves, the Raptors would be those wolves.
Fast pack hunters coming in a high variety (nearly all lethal) the
Raptors are a ever looming threat to anyone who ventures through these
lands. One of the most notable species is the Frilled Raptor. They
are among the largest of the Raptors and perhaps most tactical. The
frill that denotes them is used to surprise and shepherd prey groups
towards fellow pack members, or to simply ward off threats and impress
the opposite sex. Although one might speculate that they descend
from Frill-necked lizards, the Raptors actually all split from the same
ancestor as the mighty Tyrants.”
Magnalania (Meiolania Gigantos)
“Magnalania are tanky herbivores, grazing on a number of low ground
vegetation in the forest and fields of the island. They are a large
cousin of the Meiolania species of turtle, and the only living member of
that family. A mean bite, tough shell, and hefty club tail have ensured
they stay alive while assaulted by various predators. They are only
truly vulnerable in their youth, but in some cases large Tyrants have
learned to kick over Magnalania and bite at the exposed areas of the
under belly. Males have a unique pattern of spots upon their shell with yellow highlights, while females keep a generally stoney dull colour.”
Triceros (Chamaeursus Horridus)
“The island holds many strange specimens of gigantism, but one of the
more surprising species is the Triceros and it’s kin. Around the size of
a rhino, the Triceros is a descendant of ancient chameleons that
seemingly filled the vacant niche of a large herbivore. Oddly, its not a
pure herbivore but in fact an omnivore, eating any small animals that
it stumbles upon.
Inheriting the sticky tongue of it’s ancestors,
the Triceros has developed it into a short but strong “trunk” that
allows it to tug plants out by the root and eat them whole, as well as
hapless creatures. Triceros also inherits the colour changing capability
of it’s relatives, used as camoflage as a hatchling and display as an
adult.
The notable three horns help the animal tussle with other
members of it’s species as well as fight off major predators. The crest
protects the neck from a fatal bite to the neck.”
Thyreos (Stegosuchus)
“Thyreos are large herbivores that wander through the island’s
forest to feed on peculiar roots and bunches of ferns. Other times they
are wallowing in shallow pools and chewing on aquatic plants in small
groups. Despite how calm they may seem, Thyreos have a bad habit of
smashing anything with their tail if approached, often killing or
crippling whatever dared to get near. This goes doubly so for mother
Thyreos who defend their young with extreme prejudice. The
notably large plates along the back act as a display that makes any
predator wary of the Thyreos’s size, as well as to impress or threaten
other Thyreos. Thyreos only start to develop these plates after a month
of being born, when they are already getting too big for their mother to
carry them in her mouth. The role of the plates in early life is to
generally make them too hard to swallow for most predators, also so the
mother can spot them in the brush. Interestingly,
Thyreos are crocodilians that have developed into primarily terrestrial
herbivores. It is currently unknown if they share an origin with the
salt water crocodile descended Ruptorsaurs, or if they descend from an
ancient line of crocodylomorphs.”
“Implacable November weather. As much mud in
the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of
the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus,
forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn
Hill.”
– Charles Dickens, Bleak House, Ch. 1 (1853)
The weather is pretty grey where I am and it reminded me of this quote, famous among paleo-fiction aficionados as one of the oldest references to a dinosaur in popular literature. Of course, there are no actual dinosaurs in Dickens’s Bleak House making the above just an example of some really overwrought pose. But it is interesting to take a moment and consider the context in which this was written.
Bleak House was originally serialized
in 20 monthly illustrated installments (like a comic book)
between March 1852 and September 1853
before appearing in novel form in late 1853. That was a year before the celebrated Crystal Palace dinosaur sculptures created by pioneering paleo-artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807–1894) were unveiled to the British public. Among the prehistoric beasts on display were the aquatic reptilesIchthyosaurus,
Mosasaurus,
Plesiosaurus, the flying reptiles
Pterodactylus
and the dinosaurs
Hylaeosaurus, Iguanodon
and Megalosaurus.
Dickens visited the Crystal Palace exhibit and was so taken with the dinosaurs and other extinct animals on display that he was moved to write an essay, published in 1848, titled “The Poetry of Science,” in which he waxes on about the “monsters” so great “that [they] would have crushed the noted
dragons of the fables at a blow.” Later in 1882, Dickens also published a guide book for Palace exhibits in which he again waxes on about “the most extraordinary of the extinct animals, active, fierce, and swift in the pursuit of their prey“ – which is an image rather contrary to the supposedly old school notion that dinosaurs were lethargic lizardtine lumps.
Also notable is Dickens’s reference to
“the waters [that] had but newly retired from the face of
the earth.” At first this seems but a simple reference to a recent torrential downpour, but what Dickens is actually alluding to here is nothing less than Noah’s Flood. Belief in the historical reality of the biblical Deluge was still quite common in Dickens’s time – and let’s face it, it’s still quite common today – and the pairing of this sentiment with mention of the Megalosaurus betrays the close relationship between the flood and prehistoric beasts which many Victorians assumed. Case in point, before the term “dinosaur” caught on in the late 1880s it was quite common for people to refer to such creatures as “antediluvian monster”; antediluvian meaning “before the Deluge.”
One of the greatest proponents of the historicity of Noah’s Flood was Oxford geologist William Buckland (1784–1856) who was also the discoverer of Megalosaurus. Though this may all seem very fundamentalist to some people today Buckland’s belief in a literal Flood wasn’t a product of blind faith but rather his conviction that the geological record supported such an event. In fact, Buckland actually got into trouble with his fellows at Oxford because of his insistence that as scientists they should use nature to help them understand the truth of the Bible, rather than using the Bible to try and understand nature. Buckland thought that Genesis’ account of a universal deluge was based in truth because he thought he saw evidence for it in the rocks. But like a good scientist Buckland was also open to new data that would falsify his hypothesizes and though for much of his life he adhered to the idea that Noah’s Flood was real he would eventually be dissuaded from the notion by Swiss-American geologist and paleo-ichthyologist Louis Agassiz (1807–1873)
who demonstrated that Buckland’s supposed geological signs of a global flood could be explained via glaciation.
ABOVE: “Jurassic Park 1854″ by Jeb Taylor. See more of his work here.
ISorry to distract from the article, but if that picture was made into a movie, I’d want to add in
C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne’s The Lizard in as well for the equivalent of The Lost World.
Good for a laboratory breakout scene showing what happen’s when the alchemical methods don’t “work quite right.”. Or perhaps it came from a strange spawning pit they reverse engineered to make the other dinos.
Monsters and Stuff 